Notes
(1) It is desirable to translate {.} {.}, for which “inhabitants” or “people” is elsewhere sufficient, here by “human inhabitants.” According to other accounts Singhala was originally occupied by Rakshasas or Rakshas, “demons who devour men,” and “beings to be feared,” monstrous cannibals or anthropophagi, the terror of the shipwrecked mariner. Our author’s “spirits” {.} {.} were of a gentler type. His dragons or nagas have come before us again and again.
(2) That Sâkyamuni ever visited Ceylon is to me more than doubtful. Hardy, in M. B., pp. 207–213, has brought together the legends of three visits,—in the first, fifth, and eighth years of his Buddhaship. It is plain, however, from Fâ-Hien’s narrative, that in the beginning of our fifth century, Buddhism prevailed throughout the island. Davids in the last chapter of his “Buddhism” ascribes its introduction to one of Asoka’s missions, after the Council of Patna, under his son Mahinda, when Tissa, “the delight of the gods,” was king (B.C. 250–230).
(3) This would be what is known as “Adam’s peak,” having, according to Hardy (pp. 211, 212, notes), the three names of Selesumano, Samastakuta, and Samanila. “There is an indentation on the top of it,” a superficial hollow, 5 feet 3 34 inches long, and about 2 12 feet wide. The Hindus regard it as the footprint of Siva; the Mohameddans, as that of Adam; and the Buddhists, as in the text,—as having been made by Buddha.
(4) Meaning “The Fearless Hill.” There is still the Abhayagiri tope, the highest in Ceylon, according to Davids, 250 feet in height, and built about B.C. 90, by Watta Gamini, in whose reign, about 160 years after the Council of Patna, and 330 years after the death of Sâkyamuni, the Tripitaka was first reduced to writing in Ceylon;—“Buddhism,” p. 234.
(5) We naturally suppose that the merchant-offerer was a Chinese, as indeed the Chinese texts say, and the fan such as Fâ-Hien had seen and used in his native land.
(6) This should be the pippala, or bodhidruma, generally spoken of, in connexion with Buddha, as the Bo tree, under which he attained to the Buddhaship. It is strange our author should have confounded them as he seems to do. In what we are told of the tree here, we have, no doubt, his account of the planting, growth, and preservation of the famous Bo tree, which still exists in Ceylon. It has been stated in a previous note that Asoka’s son, Mahinda, went as the apostle of Buddhism to Ceylon. By-and-by he sent for his sister Sanghamitta, who had entered the order at the same time as himself, and whose help was needed, some of the king’s female relations having signified their wish to become nuns. On leaving India, she took with her a branch of the sacred Bo tree at Buddha Gaya, under which Sâkyamuni had become Buddha. Of how the tree has grown and still lives we have an account in Davids’ “Buddhism.” He quotes the words of Sir Emerson Tennent, that it is “the oldest historical tree in the world;” but this must be denied if it be true, as Eitel says, that the tree at Buddha Gaya, from which the slip that grew to be this tree was taken more than 2000 years ago, is itself still living in its place. We must conclude that Fâ-Hien, when in Ceylon, heard neither of Mahinda nor Sanghamitta.
(7) Compare what is said in chap. xvi, about the inquiries made at monasteries as to the standing of visitors in the monkhood, and duration of their ministry.
(8) The phonetic values of the two Chinese characters here are in Sanskrit sa; and va, bo or bha. “Sabaean” is Mr. Beal’s reading of them, probably correct. I suppose the merchants were Arabs, forerunners of the so-called Moormen, who still form so important a part of the mercantile community in Ceylon.
(9) A Kalpa, we have seen, denotes a great period of time; a period during which a physical universe is formed and destroyed. Asankhyeya denotes the highest sum for which a conventional term exists;—according to Chinese calculations equal to one followed by seventeen ciphers; according to Thibetan and Singhalese, equal to one followed by ninety-seven ciphers. Every Maha-kalpa consists of four Asankhyeya-kalpas. Eitel, p. 15.
(10) See chapter ix.
(11) See chapter xi.
(12) He had been born in the Sakya house, to do for the world what the character of all his past births required, and he had done it.
(13) They could no more see him, the World-honoured one. Compare the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 89, 121, and note on p. 89.
(14) Sudana or Sudatta was the name of the Bodhisattva in the birth which preceded his appearance as Sâkyamuni or Gotama, when he became the Supreme Buddha. This period is known as the Vessantara Jataka, of which Hardy, M. B., pp. 116–124, gives a long account; see also “Buddhist Birth Stories,” the Nidana Katha, p. 158. In it, as Sudana, he fulfilled “the Perfections,” his distinguishing attribute being entire self-renunciation and alms-giving, so that in the Nidana Katha is made to say (“Buddhist Birth Stories,” p. 159):— “This earth, unconscious though she be, and ignorant of joy or grief, Even she by my free-giving’s mighty power was shaken seven times.” Then, when he passed away, he appeared in the Tushita heaven, to enter in due time the womb of Maha-maya, and be born as Sâkyamuni.
(15) I take the name Sama from Beal’s revised version. He says in a note that the Sama Jataka, as well as the Vessantara, is represented in the Sanchi sculptures. But what the Sama Jataka was I do not yet know. But adopting this name, the two Chinese characters in the text should be translated “the change into Sama.” Rémusat gives for them, “la transformation en eclair;” Beal, in his first version, “his appearance as a bright flash of light;” Giles, “as a flash of lightning.” Julien’s Methode does not give the phonetic value in Sanskrit of {.}.
(16) In an analysis of the number of times and the different forms in which Sâkyamuni had appeared in his Jataka births, given by Hardy (M. B., p. 100), it is said that he had appeared six times as an elephant; ten times as a deer; and four times as a horse.
(17) Chaitya is a general term designating all places and objects of religious worship which have a reference to ancient Buddhas, and including therefore Stupas and temples as well as sacred relics, pictures, statues, &c. It is defined as “a fane,” “a place for worship and presenting offerings.” Eitel, p. 141. The hill referred to is the sacred hill of Mihintale, about eight miles due east of the Bo tree;—Davids’ Buddhism, pp. 230, 231.
(18) Eitel says (p. 31): “A famous ascetic, the founder of a school, which flourished in Ceylon, A.D. 400.” But Fâ-Hien gives no intimation of Dharma-gupta’s founding a school.